Japan-Mexico Relations Began with a Shipwreck
400th Anniversary of Friendship in 2009
The commemorative year started with the revival of a forgotten piece of history, the shipwreck of the “San Francisco”, which had been wiped from the collective memory by the later prohibition of Christianity in Tokugawa Japan. The Colegio de México in Mexico City is now celebrating with a series of events, additional to ongoing Japan-related activities.
From Shipwreck to the Japan-Mexico Treaty and Tall Ship Visitations
Back in 1609, Japan had just been unified under the Tokugawa Shogunate, and Spain had extended control across Central America (where Mexico was known as Nueva España) and on to the Philippine Islands in the western Pacific.
Recounted by the Onjuku Museum of Historical Materials, a merchant ship, the “San Francisco” crewed from New Spain, had visited the Philippines and was returning home with the Governor of the Philippines, Rodrigo de Vivero, on board. It shipwrecked at Onjuku on the coast of what is now Chiba Prefecture, the peninsula enclosing Tokyo Bay.
More than 300 crew and passengers were rescued by fishermen and nursed to health by the villagers. The Governor obtained an audience with both the current and retired Tokugawa shoguns, who generously had a ship built by the English pilot Will Adams — another shipwrecked sailor living in Japan — to send the Governor and crew on to Acapulco in 1610.
Mexico, independent of Spain from 1821, and Japan, newly restored as an oligarchic monarchy in 1868, together signed the Japan-Mexico Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation in 1888. This led to the welcoming of the first Japanese immigrants to work in the mines and other industries in Mexico. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that by 1999, about 15,650 Mexicans of Japanese descent and 4,100 Japanese nationals were living in Mexico.
In 1978, Onjuku Town became a sister city with Acapulco, and it is fitting that one of the more spectacular events in this celebratory year was a visit to Japan by the Mexican Navy training ship “Cuauhtemoc”, a tall ship. Departing from Acapulco, it called at four Japanese ports in the summer of 2009: first stop Onjuku, then Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka.
The Japanese Studies Programme and Events at El Colegio de México
Since the Japanese immigrant population in Mexico is the third largest in Latin America, after Brazil and Peru, Japanese Studies has found a home in the Mexican scholarly community. A Center for Asian & African Studies (CEAA) was established in 1964 at El Colegio de México, an independent graduate school. The CEAA programme is the only place in Latin America where one can earn a doctorate on a Japanese topic, attracting students from many Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. The students study for two years to qualify for a Masters degree.
The Center is now hosting a series of commemorative activities on Japan, not only for the 400th anniversary but also for the 45th year since their founding. The events for this term, held at El Colegio de México, are:
• 13 Aug 09 Lecture: “The heart’s home town: traditional folk song in modern Japan” by Dr. David Hughes (SOAS, Univ. London)
• 20 Aug 09 Lecture: “Queen Mother of the West in early Japan: cult and politics in the 3rd-4th century Kofun period” by Professor Emeritus Gina Barnes (SOAS, Univ. London)
• 2 Sept 09 Lecture: “Japón en la crisis global” by Dr. Tetsuro Kato (Hitotsubashi Univ.)
• 3 Sept 09 Roundtable: “Japón hoy. Política y sociedad”
• 4 Sept 09 Book Presentation: “Literatura de resistencia de las mujeres ainu” by author Yolanda Muñoz
• 5 Oct 09 Book Presentation: “Cultura visual en Japón: once estudios Iberoamericanos” by compilers Dr. Amaury A. García (CEAA) and Dr. Emilio García Montiel (Univ. Cristóbal Colón)
Japanese Culture in Mexico City
The Japan Foundation maintains a small office in Mexico City and is very important to the support of the Japanese Studies Programme at El Colegio de México. Library funds for buying books in Japanese and Spanish, as well as donations of important works on Japan offset current cuts in educational funding.
As elsewhere, Japanese culture is transmitted to Mexico City residents through food, especially the ubiquitous presence of sushi: in supermarkets, restaurant chains such as Sushi Itto, and private establishments such as the Japanese restaurant Deigo. The deigo tree (Indian coral bean, Erythrina orientalis Murray) provides the official flower of Okinawa Prefecture — and a nice pun on the Spanish name Diego. The sushi chef at Deigo is Okinawan, and with advance notice he can also make Okinawan specialties like sour-gourd fried rice, goya champuru.
Unfortunately, Deigo does not have an Okinawan sanshin lute hanging on the wall, as many other Okinawan restaurants do to encourage guests to try their hand at folk songs. But on the first Sunday in August every year, the Okinawan community holds their annual Bon dance, the Eisa Festival.
Further activities of the Japanese community in Mexico City include an autumn festival in October and courses in Japanese language, calligraphy, flower arranging, classical dance, martial arts. Details on all these actvities and more, including events concerning Japan-Mexico relations, can be found on the La Asociación México-Japonesa website.
El Colegio de México courtyard
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Colegio lecture on folk song 13aug09
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